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It is Sunday morning and I am preparing to go to prison tomorrow. Should I be nervous? What should I wear? Make-up? How do I respond when they call my name? Will the guard accept a handshake? I am checking the weather for tomorrow on my phone. Can I bring my phone? These are the questions I am contemplating as I get ready for my trip to Butner Federal Correctional Facility in Butner, North Carolina tomorrow.

The facility is home to some legendary criminals, including notorious Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. It houses Adelphia Communications founder John Rigas and his son Timothy, both found guilty in 2004 of securities fraud, serving 4 and 18 year prison sentences, respectively. Sam Riddle, Detroit political consultant and aid to convicted felon, former Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, arrived at Butner on February 23, 2011 to serve a 37-month sentence after pleading guilty to bribery and extortion . I wonder how Mr. Riddle is preparing for his stay at Butner.

Other inmates include former Rite Aid Corp. Vice Chairman Franklin C. Brown who is serving a 10-year sentence under medium-security. Jonathan Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst, pled guilty in 1987 to spying for Israel and is now serving a life sentence. Former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham is serving time at Butner for accepting bribes. Attempted presidential assassin John Hinckley Jr. and televangelist Jim Bakker are former inmates.

There is another professor at the Butner facility, former economics professor Dr. Albert Parish who is serving a 26-year sentence for his involvement in a $66 million Ponzi scheme. Fortunately for me, my arrangement at Butner is very different from the other 3,600 inmates. I will be on the other side of the visitor’s table, visiting Dr. Parish.

I hold my role as an educator in high regards and I never imagined visiting a fellow colleague in academia at a prison serving a 26-year term. I grew up 45 minutes from Butner but Tuesday will be the first time I view life on the inside. My research encompasses the intricacies of white-collar crime, and when I am inside Butner the consequences of these crimes will be true before my eyes.

Butner Federal Correctional Facility, considered the ‘Crown Jewel’ of the Bureau of Prisons system, consists of two medium-security prisons, a minimum-security prison camp, and a medical facility. It has the largest psychological medical complex in the entire federal prison system and is home to one of the top drug abuse programs in America.

Preparing for my visit to prison is both intriguing and frightening. I am recalling some of Hollywood’s portrayals of prison. On the television series Prison Break, actor Wentworth Miller’s character tattooed the prison blueprint on his body in efforts to help his brother escape from prison. In the movie Shawshank Redemption, Tim Robbins plays a former accountant who swindles a warden out of thousands of dollars. I learned that Butner is known to be akin to a college campus. I will find out first hand if this feels like college and whether Dr. Parish feels like a professor in that environment. I doubt it, but I look forward to the experience.